Tuesday, June 5, 2012

06/05/2012
Noynoy appears bent on irritating China some more by announcing that
he is meeting with US President Barack Obama and United Kingdom Prime
Minister David Cameron next week and that the Philippines’ territorial
dispute with China over the Scarborough Shoal would be raised during his
bilateral meetings with the two leaders.

Chinese leaders at a
Singapore regional security summit held last weekend had indicated
China’s concern over the so-called pivot of the United States forces in
Asia-Pacific and the sudden emboldened administration of Noynoy to
pursue a claim which has long been a subject of detente between the
Philippines and China.

The standoff with China over the
Scarborough Shoal dispute is already easing and negotiations are
ongoing, and it is the worst time for Noynoy to say that he wants a new
party to get involved in the territorial dispute the country has with
the mainland..... MORE

06/05/2012
Noynoy and Malacaang, along with his senator-judges and congressional
allies, may think the call for baring their financial records through
unconditional waivers of the confidentiality of their bank accounts,
will go away soon, but they should have another think coming, because
the calls for transparency are getting louder.

The call for
transparency on Noynoy got louder a few days ago after the Church
hierarchy joined the demand for him and his Cabinet officials to sign
waivers on the secrecy of their bank accounts.

Noynoy and his boys
may think they can get away with it by merely claiming that he and the
ousted Chief Justice, Renato Corona, are not on the same level and that
Noynoy need not even come up with the same act of Corona since he is not
under any obligation to do so apart from the lame excuse of his having
signed a waiver in his statement of assets, liabilities and networth
(SALn) for the Ombudsman to look into his financial records..... MORE

China has expressed mild concerns with the American plans to shift
most of its warships to the Pacific region by 2020. Beijing called on to
Washington to respect the interests of all sides in the Asia-Pacific,
including that of China.

­Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin said that the
Asia-Pacific is the region where Chinese and the US interests overlap
the most, so China expects Washington to play “a constructive role in
the region.”

"We also hope that the United States will respect
the interests and concerns of all sides in the Asia-Pacific, including
China,” Chinese diplomat said..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

Will Julian Assange’s show make the Guinness Book of Records? Quite
likely, especially if you think of all the people interrogated over
their ties with the whistleblower before or after they talked to the
WikiLeaks founder.

­“The FBI is apparently collecting evidence to indict Julian
Assange before a grand jury. Sweden must not be the final destination
of the designed extradition,” sources close to the WikiLeaks and Julian Assange told RT.

A Syrian rebel spokesman says they are no longer committed to Annan’s
ceasefire. He has called for a UN-backed “peace enforcement mission” or
a no-fly zone to replace the monitoring mission, demands the UN chief
has rejected.

On Friday, the rebel military council had given Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad an ultimatum to end violence in the country or face
armed reprisals.

"We have decided to end our commitment to this [plan] and starting from that date [Friday] we began defending our people," rebel spokesman Major Sami al-Kurdi told Reuters news agency..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune

06/05/2012
When Renato Corona appeared before the impeachment court on May 22, he
testified that he and his wife had been converting their peso earnings
to dollars since the late 1960s, when the exchange rate had been two to
one. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pressed him on this date. Not
the early sixties? No, late sixties. After 1965? Affirmative.

At
that point, it seemed to this outsider that Chief Justice (CJ) Corona’s
goose was cooked, because Enrile obviously knew that a two-to-one
exchange rate had not been available in the late sixties. In the event,
Enrile made no mention of this when he explained his conviction vote on
May 29, but a day earlier Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas had zeroed in on the
claim during his contribution to the prosecution’s closing argument,
saying that Corona would only have been able to avail of that exchange
rate until 1959.

With all due respect, Rep. Fariñas was three
years out. It is surprising that so few Filipino lawmakers (let alone
the former Chief Justice and those who advised him) seem to be aware of
the date when the value of the peso was almost halved. What makes it
memorable — or should do — are the circumstances in which the
devaluation occurred. Does nobody read Lichauco or Constantino anymore?.... MORE

A
Catholic bishop has rated the Aquino govenrment as the worst performer
among post-Edsa administrations in terms of agrarian reform.

Manila
Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR) has been consistently underperforming in implementing
agrarian reform, particularly land acquisition and distribution (LAD).

“The
current DAR administration has recorded the lowest Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) accomplishment when compared to all
DAR-CARP administrations,” said Pabillo in an open letter to President
Aquino.

The letter was also signed by Fr. Marlon Lacal, executive
secretary of the Association of the Major Religious Superiors of the
Philippines (AMRSP)..... MORE

06/05/2012
Hopefuls vying for the recently vacated position of Chief Justice will
have to comply with a new requirement by the Judicial and Bar Council
(JBC) for them to present a waiver of their peso and dollar denominated
bank savings.

Senate justice committee chairman Francis “Chiz”
Escudero who is a member of the collegial body that submits
recommendations to the President yesterday told reporters that those
aspiring the top judicial post needed to execute such a waiver.

Escudero
added that the JBC will now require applicants/nominees to submit their
statement of assets and liabilities and net worth (SALn) “from the
moment (they) joined the government,” if they are public servants..... MORE

Three
children were killed and six fishermen were missing after tropical
storm “Mawar” brought heavy rains and rough waters to parts of the
Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(NDRRMC) said Monday.

Two siblings were carried off by an
overflowing river in the western island of Palawan while a
seven-year-old boy drowned in a river east of Manila, the office’s
deputy director, Florentino Sison said.

Reports from the NDRRMC
identified the fatalities as two-year-old Princess Abrera and her
four-year-old brother Shawn, both of Sitio Kiwit, Barangay Sagrada in
Busuanga town, Palawan. They were reportedly carried away by overflowing
river in the area..... MORE

06/05/2012
The shortage of classrooms in public schools has forced school
officials to cut school day from five to one day a week, militant
lawmakers said yesterday.

According to Kabataan party-list Rep.
Raymond Palatino and ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio at least 20
percent of the high school students in five Quezon City high schools
have to go through the predicament as school officials implement
decongestion measures.

Palatino said students are given modules
and exercises through Internet from Monday to Friday before finally
going to school on Saturdays. The program is dubbed Alternative Delivery
Mode..... MORE

A
militant solon yesterday accused the government of sowing false hopes
with its continued persistence in implementing the K+12 program,
claiming the implementation of the program will worsen problems in
public school facilities with the continuing shortage of 132,483
teachers, 97,685 classrooms and 153,709 water and sanitation facilities.

“The
Department of Education’s (DepEd) claim that the universal kinder
program will prepare the children socially, physically, mentally and
emotionally is clearly debunked by this situation which glaringly
exposes our government’s disregard for quality education. The situation
from last year has not improved and yet the government continues to
banner the K+12 program,” said Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus of
yesterday’s opening of public school classes and start of K+12 program..... MORE